Cold-be-gone Spicy Vegetable Soup

Happy Holidays! We are in California visiting family and friends for the holidays for the first time in a looooong time. Last year we left for Thailand the day after Christmas so we didn’t come home for the holidays. It’s nice to be back. It’s nice to be cold for the first time in, um, years.

But maybe because it’s been cold, or maybe because it’s been rainy, or maybe because of all the planes and the driving and the family and the excitement.. Brett has a cold. Boo! So I made some soup. Because soup, it helps. It helps warm your bones. It helps mend things that are broken and makes colds feel better even if it doesn’t quite help you kick them to the curb. So. In case you have a cold too, here’s some soup for you. So you don’t have to be sick on Christmas.

Cold-be-gone Spicy Vegetable Soup

You could totally add chicken to this if you like. Or use chicken broth instead of vegetable broth. But my little brother is of the non-meat-eating variety, and he wanted some soup too. It happened to turn out totally vegan, if you don’t top it with cheese. I do. It’s also gluten-free. So you basically have no excuse not to make this.

Ingredients

• 3 carrots
• 2 zucchini
• 1 onion
• 1 celery root
• 1 cup frozen corn (I like Trader Joe’s Fire Roasted corn. ooo boy.) 
• 2 cloves garlic
• 1/2 tsp cumin
• 1/2 tsp smoked paprika
• 1 tsp cayenne pepper
• 1 can diced tomatoes
• 1 can great northern beans (drained and rinsed)
• 1 can vegetable broth
• salt and pepper to taste, plus a glug of your choice of oil.
• Toppings:avocado, sour cream, cheese, tortilla strips (all are optional but highly recommended.)

Procedure

1. Chop all your veggies (except the corn, obvs.) into equal size chunks. Glug some oil into a large pot over medium-high heat. Once nice and hot, toss in all your veggies minus the corn. Stir around for 5-10 minutes until the onions and zucchini is starting to soften. Add in your garlic and cook for another 2 minutes.
2. Add in all the spices and the frozen corn, and cook for another 5 minutes until super fragrant. Then pour in beans, tomatoes, and vegetable broth. Season conservatively with salt and pepper, you can always add more later.
3. Pop a lid on it, turn the heat to low and let it simmer until your house smells so good you just can’t stand it anymore. Let cook for a minimum of 20 minutes and longer if you like your veggies softer.
4. Ladle into bowls and top with avocado, sour cream, cheese, and tortilla strips. If you like. Or just scarf it. But be careful! It’s still hot!

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